On November 22, 1990 Amos Sawyer was installed as interim president of Liberia at the head of an ECOWAS-brokered Interim Government of National Unity, displacing the rival claims to the presidency that the warlords Prince Johnson and Charles Taylor had made after the killing of Samuel Doe. Following Doe's death on September 9, 1990, Johnson had declared himself acting president while Taylor, who controlled most of the country, also claimed power. To fill the vacuum, the West African bloc ECOWAS convened Liberian political parties and interest groups in Banjul, Gambia, where they selected the academic and opposition figure Amos Sawyer to lead a Interim Government of National Unity in Monrovia, backed by the ECOMOG peacekeeping force.
Sawyer took office on November 22, 1990. Taylor refused to recognize the arrangement and fighting continued, but the deposed claimant Prince Johnson was displaced without physical harm.
Researched Details
Researched
Independent research, added record by record. Hover any label for what it means.
Target identified in Coup Atlas research: Prince Johnson, who had declared himself acting president after Doe's killing and was displaced when the ECOWAS-backed interim government under Amos Sawyer took office on November 22, 1990; he was not physically harmed.
RESEARCHED NAME
Key figures
Prince Johnson (self-declared acting president displaced)
Amos Sawyer (installed as interim president)
Charles Taylor (rival warlord who rejected the arrangement)
Sources
Amos Claudius Sawyer served as interim president of Liberia from 22 November 1990 to 7 March 1994, voted into office by 35 leaders representing seven political parties and eleven interest groups, and in the period after the murder of president Samuel Doe, from 9 September 1990 until 22 November 1990, principal mutineer Prince Johnson and co-conspirator Charles Taylor both made claims on the presidency.
In November 1990 ECOWAS invited the principal Liberian players to meet in Banjul, Gambia to form a government of national unity, and the negotiated settlement established the Interim Government of National Unity led by Dr. Amos Sawyer, with ECOMOG declaring the IGNU with Sawyer as president and the broad support of Johnson, while Taylor claimed power.
SOURCE REVIEWEDWikipedia, First Liberian Civil Waropen source ↗
On Doe's death Johnson declared himself acting president of Liberia for three months, until the Interim Government of National Unity installed Amos Sawyer as interim president in November 1990, and Taylor refused to accept the IGNU's decision so that while Sawyer and the IGNU ruled in Monrovia, Taylor controlled the rest of the country.
SOURCE REVIEWEDEBSCO Research Starters, Liberian Civil Waropen source ↗
Sawyer, a founding member of the Movement for Justice in Africa and founder of the Liberian People's Party, returned to Liberia in 1990 following exile to serve as head of the Interim Government of National Unity, chosen to fill this transitional role at an extraordinary conference sponsored by ECOWAS pending elections.
SOURCE REVIEWEDCSIS, A Conversation with Liberia's Interim President Amos Sawyeropen source ↗
Editorial Note
Coding note and dataset examination: the dataset labels this a dissident coup with a not-physically-harmed fate. The event is the installation on November 22, 1990 of the ECOWAS-brokered Interim Government of National Unity under Amos Sawyer, which superseded the self-proclaimed acting presidency that Prince Johnson had claimed after killing Doe (and the rival claim of Charles Taylor). Who is coded deposed: the most consistent reading is Prince Johnson, whose three-month self-declared acting presidency ended when the IGNU took office, with Johnson's broad support; he was not physically harmed, matching the dataset. Fate coding: not physically harmed. Arc link: this is the companion to the September 9, 1990 Liberia record in this same batch (Doe's killing); together they cover the collapse of the Doe state and the interim settlement that followed. Context recorded and handled neutrally: the settlement was externally brokered by ECOWAS and backed by the ECOMOG force; Charles Taylor rejected it and continued fighting, controlling most of the country while Sawyer's IGNU governed Monrovia, so the interim government's authority was contested from the outset. The First Liberian Civil War continued for years, later context. Neutrality maintained on a contested subject.
Cross-Reference
Only one dataset carries it. One of the three reference datasets we check against carries this event; the others do not list it. That is not a contradiction — the datasets cover different periods and use different thresholds — but it means the record has had less outside corroboration.
Identifiers for finding this same event in the other datasets:
Coup Atlas research identifies the target as: Prince Johnson, who had declared himself acting president after Doe's killing and was displaced when the ECOWAS-backed interim government under Amos Sawyer took office on November 22, 1990; he was not physically harmed..
Baseline coding: Incumbent executive removed from power. Recorded leader fate: deposed; not physically harmed. The baseline file does not name individual targets; researched names are kept in a separate layer.
Baseline Dataset Citation
Cline Center Coup d’État Project Dataset, v2.2.2
Peyton, Buddy, Joseph Bajjalieh, Michael Martin, and Andrea Gerald. 2026. Cline Center Coup d’État Project Dataset. Cline Center for Advanced Social Research. V.2.2.2. February 17. University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. doi: 10.13012/B2IDB-9651987_V10
“Liberian Factions Gather to Start Peace Talks,” by Kenneth B. Noble, November 27, 1990
Los Angeles Times
“Liberia Says Enough is Enough: Apparent cease-fire opens up the possibility of national reconstruction,” November 29, 1990
This is the citation trail carried by the baseline dataset, grouped by outlet and rejoined from the line-wrapped original. Coup Atlas has not independently re-checked every document; read the original before citing a specific claim. URLs the import damaged beyond safe repair are shown as plain text and listed in citations-report.md. How this list is built →